It's been such a long time since I've posted anything here. Autumn, my favorite time of year, has come and gone, 
and the Cowboys have done the same.
I'm sorry to say and winter time is in full swing here in Texas and we're freezing to death. Frank did everything that he could possibly do to help the Cowboys out, from wearing this silly "helmet hat" to wearing his lucky Cowboy blue A&M T-shirt, but neither of those could get us to the Super Bowl.
We went to Arkansas for New Years and spent some time with our dear friends, the Firmins.
Charles surprised us all and helped with the dishes while we were at the cabin. That's not generally in his job description.
We spend most of our time when we're with them at their Lake house playing cards and he's officially in charge of the card shuffler! That's his main job on these outings.
From the time we get up in the morning until we go to bed, he is shuffling the cards as a signal that it's time to start the fun.
Right after we returned from the lake, we had a visitor in our back yard. This ugly little critter was thirsty and thought our pool was his own personal drinking fountain.
Actually he was quite large and very unfriendly. Take a look at those teeth!
I was more than glad to see him leave.
On Monday of each week I meet with my Group Reunion. This consists of me, two good friends, Kay and Diane, and we report on our spiritual journey the previous week with one another.
We talk about our Piety, Christian study and our Apostolic Action from the previous week so we can become better Christians. Group Reunion is part of the Cursillo movement which we have all been involved with for years. Meeting on a regular basis keeps us accountable to one another on our spiritual journey. When I don't meet I tend to slack off.
Speaking of slacking off, I've joined Weight Watchers again (for the umpteenth time) and am doing pretty well.
It's a wonderful program and holds me accountable for my food intake, exercise and good eating habits as well. Frank loves it when we're on the WW eating plan because I cook all the time and we eat much better than we do without a goal in mind. You have to plan ahead and that makes it much easier.
At the meetings you get a pebble for each pound you lose, so I'm keeping mine in this little decanter so I can actually see the pounds that I'm losing. It's a good motivator for me as I am a very visual person.
I've only been at this for 4 weeks so I'm doing pretty well. I hope to fill this up 2-3 times at least.
Our good friend, Bob Williamson celebrated his 80th birthday last week.
His darling wife, Cleo, gave him a dinner party and dance at Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas. There was a big crowd and it was a wonderful affair.
Bob is an Aggie, so his birthday cake was a replica of the Bonfire that they hold each year in College Station.
They had a combo playing wonderful music and had also flown Doug Montgomery in from Santa Fe here to entertain us. In fact, there were quite a few people from Santa Fe in attendance. Here is Bob with Doug making his Birthday speech.
We had another surprise that evening. Clayton West, a jazz singer from Santa Fe was there also and he entertained us as well. We absolutely love his voice and love to hear him sing.
It was a wonderful evening and a good time was had by all.
When you have Doug Montgomery and Clayton West entertaining you plus good food, good friends and dancing, how can you possibly go wrong! It was great to have a little Santa Fe here in the Metroplex. Many thanks, Bob and Cleo!
A good friend of ours came over for dinner last week. He brought us this lovely orchid which is now gracing our kitchen table. Hope I can keep it alive.
Franklin's eldest son, Ian, has decided to play hockey again. He's always loved the sport, so he's taking lessons and will start in a league in the late spring. He's wearing his uncle's jersey in this shot.
He used to play roller hockey when he was a little guy and was very good, but now he's going for the real thing!
He also made the newspaper today. The Optimist Club of Arlington held their annual Orartorical Scholarship Contest where students from the Arlington School District participated. The subject of this year's debate was "Cyber Communication - Progress of Program".
He's the handsome one on the right in the back row. We're so proud of him.
Our great grandson, Ethan, is in a play at his school this weekend. It's an original play written by the students. I'm sure that he'll do well. I told him to break a leg. (Now let's hope that he doesn't literally do that!) He's a Cowboy fan along with his Grandfather.
I was in the mood to paint one day last week. We had a break in the cold weather and the back yard was full of dove and cardinals.
Since I had already painted a cardinal last year and there were too many dove, I decided on chickadees. Here is the results. It's a watercolor that I saw on line and liked. I've almost forgotten how to use this medium since I've been painting in acrylic for so long.My computer monitor died, so I had to invest in a new one. It's much larger than the old one and I really love it. The images are much sharper and brighter so it really wasn't such a bad thing to lose the old one.Guess I'd better go and get dinner started. We'll be leaving on a short cruise in a couple of weeks. It's so cold here that we have decided to take a little jaunt to the Caribbean for a week. I'll report back on our return.
Lent starts next week so have a Holy Lenten Season. It will be a good time for reflection for me. I need that to keep my priorities straight.
XOXO, Pcasso
